With all the quintessential holiday flavors, this Gingerbread Bundt Cake is bursting with warm spices and includes a vanilla maple glaze on top. What's not to love?
I guess it's no secret now. I like big bundts and I cannot lie. I especially love a good seasonal bundt cake. In the fall, there's this Cinnamon Apple Bundt Cake with a delish maple glaze. In the spring, this Lemon Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze is to die for. Then there's the Bundt for All Seasons, as I lovingly refer to it as -- this Double Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache. It was only a matter of time before I had a gingerbread one. The wait is over!
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Dark brown v. light brown sugar
Dark brown sugar has more molasses (hence, the darker color). This means that there's a bit of a more intense flavor. If the recipe doesn't specify, generally, you should use light brown sugar, including in this gingerbread bundt cake. You're going to add ½ cup of molasses, so I think that there's plenty of intense flavor already.
How to make homemade buttermilk
Buttermilk is one of the most annoying ingredients ever. I rarely have it -- but when I do, it's always when I don't need it and then it goes bad. That's why I've stopped buying it all together. I make my own at home thanks to two ingredients:
- whole milk
- fresh lemon juice
Simply drop 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice into one cup of whole milk and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. It should start to curdle and thicken. You've got yourself some buttermilk. You can also make homemade buttermilk with vinegar if you don't have any fresh lemon juice on hand.
How to make a gingerbread bundt cake
SUPER simple. Have a bowl ready with your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all of your spices. Then mix your melted butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and molasses together. Slowly add in the dry ingredients until combined. Pour everything into your well-greased bundt pan, and ta da! All done.
Let's talk vanilla maple glaze on the gingerbread bundt cake
This vanilla maple glaze is easy to throw together. Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir with a fork until smooth.
The vanilla maple glaze is a delicious accompaniment to the gingerbread bundt cake, but you could always stop there and dust some powdered sugar over the top. The gingerbread cake doesn't need the glaze to be delicious, it'll just be a little less sweet.
Control the thickness of the glaze
The thickness of the glaze can be controlled by you by adding some more powdered sugar. Unlike my chocolate ganache that is ooey gooey and sits on top of the chocolate cake, I like for this vanilla maple glaze to actually seep into the gingerbread, so I prefer it to be a little thinner. I will say though that a thicker glaze is prettier if you are really worried about aesthetics. If you're looking for a more solid glaze to rest on top, just add powdered sugar one tablespoon at a time until the glaze runs thicker.
xox
kathryn
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the bundt cake:
- 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- 1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup molasses
For the vanilla maple glaze
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar plus a couple Tablespoons more depending on preference
- 2 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon real maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Don't grease your bundt pan until you're just about to put the batter in.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk the dry ingredients together - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and all spices.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine eggs, brown sugar, melted butter, buttermilk, and molasses. Mix until fully incorporated. On slow, gradually add dry ingredients into went ingredients until just combined.
- Now grease your bundt pan well. Pour batter into pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife comes out mostly clean. Let the cake cool in the bundt pan for about 10 minutes before running a knife along the edges and flipping upside down quickly. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- In a small bowl, combine all of the glaze ingredients and stir with a fork until there are no lumps. If glaze seems too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. Once the cake is completely cooled, pour the glaze over the cake with a spoon. Enjoy!
Notes
Jeff the Chef
What a beautiful cake. I haven't had a good gingerbread cake in ages, and I've been aching to make one. As it happens, I often do have buttermilk around. I know what you mean, though, about not having much use for it. Over time, though, I've realized that you could use it to make sorbet, ice cream, ranch dressing, and especially pancakes and waffles. But enough about that … I want a gingerbread Bundt cake!
Kathryn
Thanks, Jeff! I hope you got a chance to make this -- it's perfect for all the cake lovers out there!